The latest Australian university rankings have awarded the University of New England (UNE) five stars for Overall Experience – the 20th consecutive year the UNE has earned this student-driven recognition.
UNE is the country's only public university to have achieved this award annually across two decades of rankings by the Good Universities Guide (GUG).
“This is terrific recognition by our students that UNE is supporting them as they want to be supported, and that we have been doing it consistently for a long time," said UNE's Vice-Chancellor, Professor Chris Moran.
"A lot has happened in the past 20 years. Universities have dealt with changes in government policy, new technologies, and historic shifts in how students want to learn."
"Through it all, UNE's people have adapted to meet changes in the Higher Education environment and in student expectations. I’m delighted that through GUG, students themselves have acknowledged that the work put in by UNE staff has had a tangible impact on their university experience."
The Good Universities Guide is Australia’s largest tertiary education comparison tool. Its annual guide, published to help student decision-making, ranks universities across a range of categories using data from the Department of Education and various graduate and student experience surveys.
Along with its milestone achievement in Overall Experience, UNE was awarded five stars for its performance in the Social Equity, undergraduate Full-Time Employment and undergraduate Starting Salary categories.
GUG awards five stars to universities in the top 20 per cent of rankings.
Prof. Moran said that putting students first has been a central principle of UNE since the 1950s, when the University pioneered distance education to support students who could not attend a university campus.
"We're here to help people realise their aspirations," he said.
"We don't promise that earning a UNE degree will be easy, but we will do our utmost to make sure that UNE is a supportive partner throughout the study process. That's what we've done for 70 years, and today's GUG rankings indicate that we continue to excel in that role."
